>
> Brothers+
> Thanks to Dean Scott for sending this. Like him I believed then (as an
active member of the ARCIC in the Diocese of California) that by 2000
most of the hurdles would have been passed and we would be further down
the road to unity. Some obstacles have come up-mainly the ordination of
women (the homosexuality thing is a red herring-there have been
homosexuals in the clergy of the Roman Church since forever and everyone
knows it, but it is not spoken of publicly) and the lack of real
knowledge or interest on the part of JP2 who came to England once in
1982 and never returned (he was we are told agog at what he
discovered-he thought he was dealing with Polish Lutherans or something.
I am told that his visit to Canterbury Cathedral was esp. illuminating
and his appointments in London even more so). Thus. So we keep praying,
working and waiting. The next years will be pregnant with opportunity if
only we will seize the moment. Blessings. GDVW+
> Many of us in the 1960's and 1970's thought there was
> hope for Christian unity when serious talks were
> undertaken between Rome and Canterbury.
>
> Here are the opening lines of a significant ARCIC
> document:
>
> THE GIFT OF AUTHORITY (Authority in the Church III)
> Anglican-Roman Catholc International Commission
> (ARCIC)
> I. Introduction
> II. Authority in the Church
> III. The Exercise of Authority
> IV. Agreement in the Exercise
>
> PREFACE
> By the Co-Chairmen
> An earnest search for full visible unity between the
> Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church was
> initiated over thirty years ago by the historic
> meeting in Rome of Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope
> Paul VI. The Commission set up to prepare for the
> dialogue recognised, in its 1968 Malta Report, that
> one of the “urgent and important tasks” would be to
> examine the question of authority. In a sense, this
> question is at the heart of our sad divisions.
> When The Final Report of ARCIC was published in 1981
> half of it was devoted to the dialogue about authority
> in the Church, with two agreed statements and an
> elucidation. This was important groundwork, preparing
> the way for further convergence. The official
> responses, by the 1988 Lambeth Conference of the
> Anglican Communion and by the Catholic Church in 1991,
> encouraged the Commission to carry forward the
> “remarkable progress” that had been made. Accordingly
> ARCIC now offers this further agreed statement, The
> Gift of Authority.
>
> A scriptural image is the key to this statement. In
> chapter one of his second letter to the Corinthians,
> Paul writes of God’s “Yes” to humanity and our
> answering “Amen” to God, both given in Jesus Christ
> (cf. 2 Cor 1.19-20). God’s gift of authority to his
> Church is at the service of God’s “Yes” to his people
> and their “Amen
>
> "================================================
>
> "The Gift of Authority ARCIC document" was a
> foundation stone in further talks and offered concrete
> hope future agreements would issue in longed for unity
> between to major Christian communions.
>
> In 2004, we received the bad news that the New
> Hampshire consecration (Bp Robinson) had provided an
> occasion for stopping progress toward unity.
>
> Here are snippets from an IARCCUM  document:
> ECCLESIOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE CURRENT SITUATION
> IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION IN THE LIGHT OF ARCIC
> Report of the ad hoc sub–commission of IARCCUM
> presented to the Most Reverend and Right Honourable
> Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan
> Williams and to the President of the Pontifical
> Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal
> Walter Kasper
> June 8th, 2004
> I. Introduction
> 1. The Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic
> Church have been committed for
> almost forty years to ‘serious dialogue which, founded
> on the Gospels and the ancient
> common traditions, may lead to that unity in truth,
> for which Christ prayed’ (Common
> Declaration of Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael
> Ramsey, 1966). Over these
> decades, remarkable progress has been made towards the
> ‘restoration of complete
> communion of faith and sacramental life’ called for by
> the 1966 Declaration. The
> importance of steady movement towards this goal was
> emphasized by Pope John Paul II
> and Archbishop Robert Runcie in their Common
> Declaration of 1989:
> Against the background of human disunity the arduous
> journey to Christian
> unity must be pursued with determination and vigour,
> whatever obstacles are
> perceived to block the path. We here solemnly
> re-commit ourselves and
> those we represent to the restoration of visible unity
> and full ecclesial
> communion in the confidence that to seek anything less
> would be to betray
> our Lord’s intention for the unity of his people…
> We also urge our clergy and faithful not to neglect or
> undervalue that certain
> yet imperfect communion we already share.... This
> communion should be
> cherished and guarded as we seek to grow into the
> fuller communion Christ
> wills.
> The Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops who gathered
> in Mississauga in May of
> 2000, after reviewing the extensive progress made both
> in theological agreement and in
> practical relationships since the Second Vatican
> Council, confidently observed that the
> communion we already share is ‘no longer to be viewed
> in minimal terms’. It is ‘a rich
> and life-giving, multi-faceted communion. We have ...
> moved much closer to the goal
> of full visible communion than we had at first dared
> to believe’.1
> 2. It is a significant confirmation of the progress we
> have made, and of the importance of
> our common commitment to the goal of full ecclesial
> communion, that the appearance
> of a fresh obstacle to achieving that goal has led to
> a common initiative to address that
> difficulty. The question raised by the episcopal
> consecration in New Hampshire is
> immediately an Anglican concern and is being addressed
> by the Anglican Communion
> itself. However, consultations with the Roman Catholic
> Church led the Archbishop of
> Canterbury to take the initiative of inviting Cardinal
> Kasper of the Pontifical Council
> for Promoting Christian Unity to join him in setting
> up a special sub-commission of the
> 1 Communion in Mission, nn.5-6.
> <snip>
>
>
> Communion requires visible expression (43).
> The New Hampshire consecration has had an effect on
> the unity of the Anglican
> Communion. Recent documents have spoken of ‘impaired
> communion’ and even
> of ‘broken communion’. In the light of the centrality
> that ARCIC gives to
> communion for the realisation of the Church, we ask
> whether the damage that the
> recent consecration is doing to communion can be
> acceptable to those who profess
> belief in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
> B. Constitutive elements of ecclesial communion, the
> episcopal office, unity and
> diversity in communion, and the relationship between
> local churches and the
> universal Church
> 25. ARCIC is clear that there are inter-related
> constitutive elements and facets which
> ‘belong to the visible communion of the universal
> Church. Although their possession
> cannot guarantee the constant fidelity of Christians,
> neither can the Church dispense
> with them.’ (Church as Communion, n.46); indeed the
> Church has received these
> elements and has an obligation to pass them on (Gift
> of Authority, 14).
>>snip>
>  ARCIC understands that there is an essential
> relationship between all of the
> constitutive elements of the Church. They interrelate
> and belong to a single life of
> communion. To deny or damage one is to weaken the
> total life of communion of
> the Church. The New Hampshire consecration raises
> questions about how
> constitutive elements of communion - the unity of the
> episcopate, the authority of
> Scripture and its interplay with Tradition, and the
> holding of ‘the same basic
> moral values’ - have been honoured, singly and
> together.
> 26. ARCIC has much to say about the role of the
> bishop, both within the local church and
> in the service of the communion of all the churches.
> At ordination, every bishop
> receives ‘both responsibility for his local church and
> the obligation to maintain it in
> living awareness and practical service of other
> churches. The Church of God is found
> in each of them and in their koinonia’ (Authority I,
> 10). Within the local church, the
> bishop carries a pastoral authority, by virtue of
> which he is primarily ‘responsible for
> preserving and promoting the integrity of the koinonia
> in order to further the Church's
> response to the Lordship of Christ and its commitment
> to mission’ (Authority I, 5). The
> bishop is to teach ‘the faith through the proclamation
> and explanation of the Word of
> God’, to provide for the celebration of the
> sacraments, and to maintain the Church in
> holiness and truth (Gift of Authority, 36). ‘The
> exercise of this teaching authority
> requires that what (is taught) be faithful to Holy
> Scripture and consistent with apostolic
> Tradition’ (Gift, 44). ARCIC also communicates the
> understanding of both Anglican
> and Roman Catholic Communions that bishops carry out
> their ministry in succession of
> the Apostles, which is ‘intended to assure each
> community that its faith is indeed the
> apostolic faith, received and transmitted from
> apostolic times’ (Church as Communion,
> 33).
>
> "---------------------------------------------
>
> The groundwork laid in agreement on authority and the
> forty years of progress was interrupted by an apparent
> and embarassing failure in the Anglican ranks to honor
> the authority and teaching tradition of the church.
>
> The Archbishop of Canterbury could give no assurance
> to Walter Kasper that ECUSA would remain in the
> Anglican Communion.  Rowan Williams' plea for the
> conservatives in his church to be patient and wait for
> the Holy Spirit to bring insight that ECUSA was ahead
> by recognizing same sex committed relationships  This
> idea of waiting for inspiration to teach new truths
> about marriage could not have inspired confidence in
> Walter Kasper that Canterbury was devoted to tradition
> and truth.
>
> By year's end (December 2004) Walter Kasper gently
> instructs Rowan Williams in the meaning of Christian
> tradition and apostolic authority.
>
> Charles+
> Church of the Good Shepherd, Indianapolis
>
> LETTER OF HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL WALTER KASPER
> TO HIS GRACE DR ROWAN WILLIAMS ARCHBISHOP OF
> CANTERBURY
> 17 December 2004
> To His Grace
> the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan
> Williams
> Archbishop of Canterbury
> Your Grace,
> I greatly appreciate your letter of October 18th, the
> very day in which the Windsor Report was made public,
> inviting my informal reaction to the Report’s
> contents.
> I am grateful for the ecumenical way in which the
> Anglican Communion has proceeded in the preparation of
> the Report, and in particular, for the invitation last
> December to join you in establishing an ad hoc
> sub-committee of IARCCUM to reflect on how the Agreed
> Statements of ARCIC over the past thirty-five years
> could contribute to the current Anglican discernment
> process. The significant ecumenical concern which has
> been structured into the process by which the Windsor
> Report will be studied and reflected upon is, for us,
> a sign of trust and friendship and an encouragement to
> continue our relations and our dialogue.
> My first and overarching comment is that the Windsor
> Report proceeds in a direction which for the most part
> I find helpful. I welcome the ecclesiological approach
> by which the Report seeks to address and resolve the
> problems which confront the Anglican Communion.
> Consistent with the ARCIC documents - in particular,
> “Church as Communion” (1991) - and the IARCCUM
> ecclesiology sub-committee’s reflections, the Windsor
> Report takes as its point of departure and builds upon
> the foundations of an ecclesiology of communion
> (koinonia).  Notwithstanding the substantial
> ecclesiological issues still dividing us which will
> continue to need our attention, this approach is
> fundamentally in line with the communion ecclesiology
> of the Second Vatican Council.
> The consequences which the Report draws from this
> ecclesiological base are also constructive, especially
> the interpretation of provincial autonomy in terms of
> interdependence, thus “subject to limits generated by
> the commitments of communion” (n. 79). Related to this
> is the Report’s thrust towards strengthening the
> supra-provincial authority of the Archbishop of
> Canterbury (nn.109-110) and the proposal of an
> Anglican Covenant which would “make explicit and
> forceful the loyalty and bonds of affection which
> govern the relationships between the churches of the
> Communion” (n.118). All these consequences are in the
> line with the general thrust of ARCIC’s statements. As
> expressed in “The Gift of Authority” (1999),
> maintaining and strengthening the koinonia and a
> commitment to interdependence are constitutive aspects
> of the Church and vital for its unity.
>
> From this Pontifical Council’s perspective, the core
> recommendations of the Report would have a positive
> ecumenical impact, and we pray that these suggestions
> and proposals will be received and implemented. In a
> spirit of ecumenical partnership and friendship, we
> are ready to support this process in whatever ways are
> appropriate and requested.
> Though we are fundamentally encouraged by the Windsor
> Report, and note that its recommendations reflect the
> major insights of our common ecumenical documents,
> there are two points also found in the ARCIC texts
> which we hope can be more clearly articulated and
> directly addressed in the ongoing reception and
> implementation of the Windsor Report.
> The first point concerns the text’s ecclesiological
> approach itself.  While the Report stresses that
> Anglican provinces have a responsibility towards each
> other and towards the maintenance of communion, a
> communion rooted in the Scriptures, considerably
> little attention is given to the importance of being
> in communion with the faith of the Church through the
> ages. In addressing the exercise of authority in the
> Church, “The Gift of Authority” speaks not only of the
> necessity of a synchronic communion of churches but
> also of a diachronic consensus; in fundamental matters
> of faith and discipline, the decisions of a local or
> regional church must not only foster communion in the
> present context, but must also be in agreement with
> the Church of the past, and in a particular way, with
> the apostolic Church as witnessed in the Scriptures,
> the early councils and the patristic tradition.  While
> the Windsor Report stresses the catholicity of the
> Church, we believe that in the discussion that will
> follow, it might be helpful for the Anglican Communion
> to place more stress on the Church’s apostolicity.
> This aspect also has important ecumenical
> ramifications, since we share a common tradition of
> one and a half millennia. This common patrimony - what
> Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey called our
> ‘ancient common traditions’ - is worth being appealed
> to and preserved.
> The second area we would hope to see more directly
> addressed in discussions of the Report and its
> implementation concern the moral questions at the
> heart of the current controversy. The Report stresses
> that it was not its mandate to deal with disputed
> questions concerning homosexuality. We have noted that
> the problematic character of decisions taken in the
> Episcopal Church of the United States and the Anglican
> Church of Canada is addressed from an ecclesiological
> perspective but not a moral one. While the Windsor
> Report calls for a moratorium on same-sex blessings
> and episcopal appointments of those in same-sex
> relationships, this in itself is open to different
> interpretations. We would ask whether the traditional
> Christian understanding of marriage and human
> sexuality doesn’t need to be reasserted more clearly.
> As you know, the position of the Catholic Church in
> this matter, as expressed in the Catechism of the
> Catholic Church (nn. 2357-59), is clear, and for us,
> remains binding.  We believe that on these matters, we
> appeal to a shared apostolic patrimony which includes
> the Scriptures, but also includes a common tradition -
> grounded in a common interpretation of the Bible - of
> over 1900 years.  In light of this patrimony, we ask
> whether there might be occasion to affirm the vision
> of human sexuality which was set forth in the ARCIC
> document “Life in Christ” (1994) (n.b. nn. 55-58, 87),
> in which we began to articulate together that shared
> patrimony. From a practical and pastoral perspective
> these moral questions are laden with strong emotional
> resonances and are potentially divisive, and therefore
> are of special importance for Christian unity and
> ecumenical relations.
> In conclusion, the Windsor Report has important
> ecumenical implications insofar as it would provide
> for a greater coherence within Anglicanism, allowing
> an enhancement of our understanding of the Anglican
> Communion precisely as a communion.
>
>  For the continuation of our ecumenical dialogue, it
> is important for us to have a clear understanding of
> who our partner is. The text stands in line with our
> ARCIC documents, though there are other elements of
> ARCIC’s work which we believe deserve further
> attention.  Its recommendations address two underlying
> questions of broad ecumenical significance: the
> relationship between the universal Church and the
> local church; and a question which is becoming
> increasingly acute, namely, the tension between the
> Gospel, as reflected in the apostolic witness, and the
> approaches and trends of our post-modern societies.
> Both questions are faced by all Churches; though in
> different ways, we are confronted by many of the same
> problems and the same challenges. Therefore we should
> seek to undertake to address these issues in dialogue,
> so that we can give witness together to a world which
> has a pressing need for the common witness of the
> Church.
> As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, I
> assure you of my prayers for you and for all the
> members of the Anglican Communion.  On behalf of all
> of us at the Pontifical Council, I wish you, your
> family and the Lambeth Palace staff the peace which
> Christ alone can give as you ponder the mystery of his
> Incarnation.
> Yours sincerely in Christ,
> Walter Cardinal Kasper
> President
>
> 17 December 2004
> "===========================================
>
> It has to be embarassing for Abp Williams to be in a
> position where his opposite number must call him back
> to the ancient Christian traditions, the teaching of
> Scripture and of the responsibilities of bishops to
> teach the truth.
>
> Obviously the ship of ecumenism is sinking on the
> rocky shores of the British Isles.
>
> Charles+
> Church of the Good Shepherd, Indianapolis
>
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